Reflection of Episode 1 by Giorgos Charilaou

The presentation raised some interesting and important I would say questions towards how we view history and the that impact the history books create. Professor Papadakis through the concept of the “good” and the “bad” protagonists that we grew up with in our history books, presented a most certainly interesting way the issues our history books have.  He also pointed out what was lacking from the other book which did not focus on two main protagonists and rather shows the character development of both sides. In addition, the second part of the episode which was presented by PhD candidate Myria Constantinidou tied very well with the first one as it was mentioned how the roles of women in history is presented. A rich talk about the images of women in history books, of how absent important roles carried by women through history were, and of how minimal their appearance is. This is definitely a very important matter to discuss and research and again, it tied very well with the first part of the episode as it was about a subject that the history books really lack. In general, during the presentation, I got a sense of deep and very careful analysis on every matter that was discussed, it felt very pure and far away from opinions born through emotional attachments. In conclusion the presentation was, even for the short time we had, rich, as objective as it can get and quite healthy towards the approach of historical research and not only.

Written by Giorgos Charilaou